


As High As We'll Go

by Esselle



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, First years as third years, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 17:15:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7231543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Esselle/pseuds/Esselle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'That certainty they had of their invincibility comes and goes, now. Now they're older, a little smarter. They <i>have </i>been beaten on the court, even if they rise stronger with each defeat. But there will come a time when there won't be a 'next'. Sometimes they dwell on it, and sometimes they don't.'</p><p>--</p><p>They get mad, sometimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As High As We'll Go

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time (Wednesday evening), I was editing this on my phone, and hit Post instead of Preview on accident, and though I canceled the action, it still posted (◕‿◕) so, sorry if you're seeing this twice!!!

It's like a storm trails Kageyama into the locker room. Hinata is the only one who follows him in (the only one _willing_ to follow him in).

"Come on, Kageyama," he says, trying to make his voice light. "You know no one cares what they have to say, right?" He is referring to the team they just trounced 2-0. "It's been three years, no one actually still thinks of you as the ki—"

The walls seem to shake with how hard Kageyama slams his fist into the bank of lockers next to him. Hinata jumps, and only just in time manages to keep an undignified squeak from slipping out.

 _"Don't fucking say it,"_ Kageyama snarls, his breathing heavier than it has any cause to be.

Any argument Hinata might have made dies in his throat. "Kageyama?"

"THREE YEARS?!" the dark haired boy bursts out, kicking over a nearby pail of cleaning supplies. "It's been three _fucking_ years, and people still remember that?! What was I—how much of a little _fuck_ was I, that I'm still—"

His hands are in his hair, twisting, and it would be hard enough to bring tears to his eyes if they weren't already there. Hinata doesn't even stop to worry about being in the strike zone, he just _goes._

Kageyama has grown over the past three years while he hasn't, and he's got to get on his toes, stretch up to pull Kageyama's hands down. And then he kisses the knuckles of those large hands, every single one, twice for good measure, without ever taking his eyes off Kageyama's face. Watching for the relaxation of his jaw, the angry forehead creases smoothing over, the shaky breathing to slow.

"Tell me what's wrong," he says, when all signs point to ‘stabilizing', and Kageyama's eyes flutter open.

"In three years, I never made a single friend. I only made enemies," Kageyama starts haltingly.

"And then in the next three, you found all of us," Hinata points out.

"Because of _you,"_ Kageyama tells him. "I won't—" He swallows. "You won't be there next year. What if I—"

"What?" Hinata scoffs. "What if you suddenly go nuts again and start ordering people around?"

"No. But what if…" Kageyama bites his lip. "What if no one likes me? What if no one wants to… be on a team with me?"

Hinata actually starts to laugh before clapping his hands over his mouth at the expression of betrayal on Kageyama's face. "Sorry. Kageyama, sit down. Sit." He ushers the tall setter to one of the locker room benches, pushing him down before climbing on top of him, his legs dangling off the opposite side of the bench.

"You laughed," Kageyama says, accusingly.

"Yeah," Hinata replies, and can't quite stop another giggle from escaping. "Because the thought that anyone wouldn't want to play volleyball with you is _stupid."_

"It's not stupid," grumbles his friend. "No one wanted to before. Just you."

Hinata pushes a hand through his hair and it's like watching a balloon deflate. Kageyama sighs and puts his head on Hinata's shoulder, turning into a giant, overcooked noodle as Hinata keeps running his fingers through his hair, caressing, soothing.

"People are going to want to be on your team," he says. "You're Kageyama Fucking Tobio." He feels, rather than hears, the surprised exhalation of breath Kageyama lets out, an almost-laugh. Hinata almost never swears. "People _know_ you. They've seen you in magazines—"

"People know you, too," Kageyama mutters into his shoulder.

"Let me finish talking," Hinata scolds, and Kageyama actually listens. "None of that would even matter, because you're Kageyama _Fucking_ Tobio. You're the best setter anyone could ask for. And the best friend. And the _best teammate."_ Hinata leans in close and Kageyama picks his head up. "And you're really hot, too."

 _"Shouyou,"_ Kageyama does laugh, this time, but it gets lost when Hinata presses their lips together, which is what he's wanted to do since Kageyama scored three consecutive points in the first set off his terrifying jump serve.

"You're so hot," Hinata breathes into his mouth, kisses quick and messy, frantic. Now that he has Kageyama laughing again, he doesn't want him to stop, wants to make sure he knows all his fears are baseless, because he is worth so much. Probably like, at least five solid gold volleyballs, with diamonds studded on the seams. That would hurt to receive, ouch. "You're _so hot_ , ugh," he mutters again.

"Why do you say that—" Kageyama breaks off momentarily when Hinata shifts in his lap, and he finally takes his hands off the damn bench to wrap them around Hinata's waist, pulling him close. "Why do you say that like it's bad?"

"Because," Hinata groans, "it makes me want to _do things_ to you in the locker room while the rest of our team is waiting for us to get back on the bus."

"Do ‘things'?" Kageyama repeats mockingly. "You just said fuck twice, you can say it again, you can't run out of them."

Hinata shoves him away, cheeks red. "I take everything I said back."

Kageyama folds him over, dipping him backwards so deeply that the bottom of his jersey falls toward his head. Hinata flails as he feels like he's about to overbalance, but he's still tiny compared to the taller boy and Kageyama has him supported easily, hands splayed across his back as he kisses Hinata's exposed stomach. The blood in Hinata's body is very confused—it doesn't know which way to rush.

"Okay," he hears Kageyama say. "Thank you for saying it, though."

"Kageyama, I'm going to puke." He's pulled upright very quickly, and he grins mischievously. "Just kidding."

Kageyama doesn't push him back down, though. He brushes his thumbs over Hinata's belly, sliding them under the waistband of his shorts to rub over his hipbones.

"What things do you wanna do?" he murmurs.

"You." Hinata drapes his arms over his setter's shoulders. "I wanna fuck Kageyama Fucking Tobio."

Kageyama flashes one of his trademark evil grins. "I might be able to do something about that." Then his mouth is on Hinata's again.

 _Best teammate,_ Hinata thinks fleetingly, right before it becomes really hard to think at all.

*

Kageyama knows Hinata gets mad a lot.

He yells and shouts when Kageyama snags one of his meat buns after school; he seethes when people call him short and underestimate him; he sulks when Tsukishima teases him over his bad grades. He gets mad all the time.

But he doesn't often get furious, the cold kind, the scary kind that makes people wary when his eyes glaze over, like he's seeing right into them, to the heart of what makes them anxious and afraid. He gets that look, Kageyama now understands, because he's so in tune with his own anxieties, his own fears—the things that keep him awake at night.

One of those is not being good enough.

Kageyama can tell by the angle of his shoulders after their last set that he's thinking it now. They're in Tokyo for summer training camp—their final time there. It's weird, they're training hard as usual, but things are oddly emotional, at least for him, and Hinata, and Yachi and Yamaguchi. He suspects Tsukishima feels the same, not that he'll ever say a word.

That certainty they had of their invincibility comes and goes, now. He doesn't think it will ever truly be gone, because when he's standing on the court next to Hinata, in the middle of his team, he still feels like he can do anything. But now they're older, a little smarter. They _have_ been beaten on the court, even if they rise stronger with each defeat. But there will come a time when there won't be a ‘next'. Sometimes he dwells on it, and sometimes he doesn't.

It's harder not to dwell when almost every single one of your spikes gets blocked in the last match of the day, a two set shut out, and that's why Hinata is walking out of the gym to cool off as soon as they've finished flying falls. Kageyama notices Lev watching him go, but to his credit, the giant Russian is no longer as tactless as he was at fifteen. He doesn't make to follow, but his green eyes flick to Kageyama once, before sliding away again. Kageyama knows he's not the only one looking. But he can't up and leave the cleaning to just half of Karasuno's upperclassmen…

Tsukishima passes by him. "Just go," he says blandly. "It's embarrassing when he acts out."

"We've got it here," Yamaguchi adds, smiling. Kageyama nods briskly in thanks. He's nearly made it to the door when Yamaguchi calls after him again. "We'll be in the third gym when he's ready to come back. Okay?"

It's a testament to the past three years together that Yamaguchi says ‘when' and not ‘if', and Kageyama sees no reason to correct him.

He follows Hinata out of the gym, jogging to catch up. The redhead seems to be wandering aimlessly and is climbing the hill that separates the gyms from the view of the tennis courts, his bag slung haphazardly over one shoulder.

"Hinata!" Kageyama calls after him, though he doesn't expect his friend to stop. He reaches him as Hinata hits the top of the slope. "Where are you going?" He grabs Hinata's arm.

Hinata whirls around as fast as he does when he's repositioning for a quick, ripping his arm out of Kageyama's grasp. His eyes are open wide, blank, yet manic. He is _pissed._

Kageyama lets his hand hang for a second, before it falls. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't have to.

Hinata grabs for the front of his shirt and yanks, and they topple, sides slamming into the grassy hillside. They roll once or twice, then slide most of the way to the bottom off of the momentum.

"That was stupid," Kageyama tries to say, but it comes out as more of a muffled simulation of speaking because Hinata is kissing him _violently,_ and is about two seconds away from having his cock in hand, and that's not a situation in which he wants to further anger the beast. Hinata goes from _don't touch me_ to _touch me everywhere_ startlingly quick when he's like this, so Kageyama does as expected, hands up the back of his partner's shirt, sliding up until he's grabbing Hinata's neck underneath the collar of his jersey.

It's not like he wasn't expecting this. In the past they would argue when tensions boiled over, and they still do, but sometimes (most of the time now) it's this instead. And Kageyama isn't dumb enough to complain. Maybe some people would say it's immature or unhealthy, but they don't _know._ Sometimes the calm comes after the storm instead.

He tilts his head to watch as Hinata shoves both their shorts down, wriggling his lower body like he's fucking possessed and it's _cute,_ but Kageyama is not going to point that out right now, no. But then Hinata is wriggling his way on up, hands on Kageyama's shoulders, _positioning himself._

Kageyama smacks their foreheads together.

"OW!"

"Shh," Kageyama hisses, covering Hinata's entire face with one hand. "You want someone to hear you and come looking right _now,_ idiot?" His shorts are around his ankles, he doesn't even know where Hinata's are. They are both rock hard.

"Why did you _headbutt me, then?"_ Hinata growls back.

"You can't get on me, you won't be able to _walk_ tomorrow."

Hinata drags his bag over by the strap, rooting around in it. "Here." He shoves the little bottle at Kageyama.

"Seriously?" Kageyama splutters.

"What, did you think we were gonna wait a whole weekend, for real?" Hinata shoots back.

Kageyama snatches the bottle from him. "I am not putting my dick in you right now."

Hinata looks mad enough to bite him—which isn't really a downside, but…

He pulls Hinata close again, wrapping one leg around him, uncapping the lube to dribble it over his fingers. It's not what Hinata wants, but it'll have to do, for now.

"You're too demanding," he says, reaching down to grab Hinata's ass with one hand, and pushing inside him with the other. One finger first, because if Hinata really can't walk tomorrow, that's not going to improve the current situation they're in at all.

"I'm— _not_ —" Hinata tries to say, and then he's gone, face in Kageyama's shoulder, breathing hot and fast into his skin as he grinds against him, and then back into Kageyama's fingers. One small hand is on them both, sliding over slick skin. And it doesn't matter if this isn't what he wanted, because they're together and Kageyama is here for him, to _try_ and give him what he wants, and… yeah, it'll do.

Two fingers and Hinata is having trouble, he keeps forgetting to move his hand until eventually he just stops, and when Kageyama turns his head to look at him it's to see unfocused eyes, mouth open, small little pants turning into tiny, whimpering moans as Kageyama curls his fingers, circling them gently at first inside him, against him, before building the intensity. It's fortunate Hinata is so small, because he can move him, too, sliding his hand over to grab at the back of one of Hinata's thighs and pushing him up and back, up and back, over and over so they're moving together, until Hinata throws his head back and comes with a low, throbbing moan like a sob.

And then he turns to look at Kageyama and he smiles at him, just a small, sweet, shy smile, like he's apologizing for his earlier behavior, and Kageyama _needs to kiss him_ as he finishes with a groan, and thinks he could just do that, forever. All seems to be right in the world, again.

It's nice, how amazing it feels in the moment, because it makes it not so bad when they're a gross, sticky mess afterward, without the foresight of having brought anything to change into or wipe off with. Kageyama opts for just pulling his shorts back up, which is a terrible, terrible decision. Hinata is doing something like the worm in the grass next to him, trying to get clean.

"You look ridiculous," he tells the smaller boy.

"You look uncomfortable," Hinata responds. "At least I'm dry."

"Come here," Kageyama tells him, tucking him underneath his arm, so they can both look up at the evening sky. Maybe that's why Hinata asks,

"Do you think this is as high as I'll go?"

Kageyama turns to look at him. Hinata doesn't glance back, but that just makes it easy to brush the tip of his nose over Hinata's jaw, his ear.

"No," Kageyama says.

"How do you know?"

Kageyama shrugs. He just _knows._ "We're not at the top, yet."

"Yeah." Hinata smiles again. "You're right."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a millenia ago and then couldn't decide when to post it. But, since I am between fics and not able to write as much while on vacation, now seemed like a good time :) I hope it was enjoyable. Thanks to [Ellessey](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellessey) for proofreading, as always ♡
> 
> [I'm [@esselley](http://esselley.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, [@Esselle_hq](https://twitter.com/Esselle_hq) on Twitter]


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